Red Riding Legacy
by PenelopeDalton
Summary: Set far in the future, the decendants of the original characters are still effected by the event today.   This is basically a futuristic of the story,please review and hope you enjoy.
1. Chapter 1  Little Red

In the year of 2194 there are many people who still like to keep some of the older traditions. One such family is that of a girl named Little Red Riding Hood. Now it may seem like an odd thing to call a child but it was a tradition going back centuries and all of the girls in the family had been given the same name. It was a tradition so old that the reason behind it had long been lost.

Little Red was just like any other teenager, she loved to hang out with her friends and she spent hours in virtual planes of reality. Also like any other teenager, she disobeyed her mother when she was told to do chores. Unfortunately, every Sunday she was faced with an errand she could not avoid, she was to visit her sick grandmother with some baked goods that had been prepared freshly by the house robot that morning. Every Sunday she'd stroll through the metal forest and down to the village where her grandmother lived.

One Sunday, something didn't feel right, she could feel someone watching her as she weaved between the cold trunks and ducked under iron branches that hung low over the paths. She tried to ignore the feeling of a harsh glare on the neck but it niggled at her until she finally stopped to inspect the forest around her. Deep in the distance she saw something move swiftly through the trees, but as she scanned the shadows to follow its path, a figure grabbed her from behind and pushed a cloth over her mouth to stifle her scream. Fear overwhelmed her but so did the adrenalin pumping through her veins, she pushed away and spun, hitting her attacker with her outstretched leg. He fell to the ground and she stood over him a smile on her lips as she saw the fear in his eyes and the shake of his body. He was one of the Wolf House clan, a group of thugs who terrorised the streets and vandalised local buildings, everyone knew they were bad news.

"What do you want?" she demanded putting pressure on his stomach as she did so.

"That smell, it's so delicious and I'm so hungry." He replied weakly, the sound was so thin that Red could only just hear it.

"Well, you're not getting any of these!" Red signalled to the basket. "They're for my grandmother who's very sick. Now, I must go as she lives on the other side of the forest and it will take forever to get there. If I catch you near me again I will rip your puny head off and don't think I'm joking." Although she did feel a little sorry for the Wolfhouser, she knew what they were like and he could easily be tricking her in order to attack her and her batch of goodies.

She left him there, panting on the ground and skipped off on her way, not turning back even once.


	2. Chapter 2 The Wolf

He waited until she had gone to try getting up and when he did he found it near impossible to pull himself up. A sharp stabbing radiated through his back and the hunger that he had felt for days made it feel like his stomach was fighting against him or perhaps eating itself, it probably was.

Having pushed through the agony he leaned against the nearest tree, the cold metal soothing the burning pain in his bare back. The forest was deadly silent and he couldn't even see a wurgle hanging round. He was glad for that though, the last time he had seen one the critter had tried to bite him. The only sounds he could hear were his own panting and his heart beat, both erratic and panicked. The only thing he could see was miles and miles of endless iron and silver and gold, a million shades of heartless grey and brassy copper.

His stomach growled and the punch forced him to bend over. He couldn't even remember the last time that he had eaten anything other than scraps and it had been days since he'd managed to find anything to eat at all. He hadn't wanted much from the girl just a morsel and he would have been happy, well relatively anyway. But she left him, stranded; she had kicked him down and just left him to die. He understood why she wouldn't like him, his kind weren't wanted anywhere, a few rogue "wolves" had given the whole group a bad reputation and now that he was out on the streets he saw the effect it had had. Everyone gave him dirty looks and even little girls would kick him down rather than save him from starvation.

He started to walk following the same path the girl had taken, he figured that at least that way, he might find a town and perhaps a good dumpster.


	3. Chapter 3 Little Red

It took a while to get out of the forest, about an hour or so. The winding paths and low hanging branches made it a hard and long journey. Red had had to stop a number of times to sit down and rest but every time she did, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling that someone was watching her and she kept hearing things move when there was nothing to be seen. Maybe it was just the endless rows of trees and the sheer size of the forest, but Red couldn't help think it might be something more.

When she broke free from the forest's entrapment she saw a landscape completely different from her hometown and it took her breath away. Here the sky stretched on for what seemed like an eternity whereas at home every inch of space was cluttered with metal towers and glass panels the blue of sky lost behind a shiny kingdom. Fields of green went on forever and the fresh smell of flowers was in the air. She'd been here a thousand times before, but Red was sure that even if she lived here, the sight would still amaze her every time she saw it.

She waltzed threw the small down in a slight daze, the pure aura of the place was a bit too much to take in for a city girl. It was strange how quiet it was, even though people walked around, no one made a sound and the only thing that could be heard was the cheerful chirp of birds in the trees that surrounded the main square.

Exhausted from the trip, Red sat down on the fountain in the centre of the main square. It was a grand three tiered one with little fairies decorating both the top and the base. The whole idea of a fountain was old-fashioned and this one was especially archaic, in fact now that she thought about it the village seemed to be from a different time with its cottages and markets rather than apartments and boutiques.

Not many people passed her as she sat there, but she could swear she saw a wolf searching the streets hunting for food.


	4. Chapter 4 The Wolf

Even with the hunger pangs he moved faster than the average human could and he soon came across the girl taking a rest, he sneaked past her, using the most brown of the trees as camouflage for his tanned body. He passed her quickly, careful not to make a sound and ran through the dense collection of metal until he broke out into the sunshine that blessed the Diadrone Valley. The rays kissed his skin and he felt better being out in the open rather than being surrounded by steel and iron. He had been to many places before, but none of them compared to this, it was a rare jewel in the country's crown and every time he visited, he made a point of staying as long as he could, just to stay basking in the sunlight.

He made his way through the streets and alleyways, careful not to draw too much attention to himself and careful not to knock anyone. If they saw him, saw what he was, he'd probably be run out of town straight away. He searched bins and gutters, the lowest of the low looked down on him as he searched desperately for just a small morsel of food to keep him alive.

No one really knew the origin of his people but they all knew it was bad. Some said that the wolfhouser's had ravaged a whole town and that was why everyone hated them and how they had gotten their name, others whispered the old myths of werewolves and vampires. He knew for a fact that the later wasn't true, he had never transformed into a full wolf he just bared some of the characteristics of one. His speed, his agility and his keen sense of smell, all things that led people to believe the most popular rumour, that they were descended from wolves, well, one wolf in particular who had learned to talk through the study of humans. He didn't know what to believe.

He wondered the streets for half an hour before the warm smell hit his nose and filled his starving brain. He followed it to a cottage that stood nestled between two shops.

Desperate, he knocked on the door; there was no time to think of pride. It opened and before him stood what seemed to be a kind old lady, well from what he could tell she was old. Despite her appearance, it was clear as soon as she opened the door that he had made a mistake. Her eyes were arrows aimed straight at him, ready to kill and he only just managed to brace himself before she kicked him, square in the crotch.

It seemed that even the elderly hated him.


	5. Chapter 5 Grandma

She had expected it to be a travelling salesman or perhaps one of those annoying carrier letters that gave you a paper cut is you opened the door while it was still knocking. No, it wasn't any of those; it was something much worse, a wolfhouser. Someone she hated more than most people did. It wasn't her fault she hated them, it was just in her blood, it was a rivalry that went back centuries between her family and them. She didn't know what had happened but she knew it was bad and that it had affected her whole ancestry so much that the hatred had been bred into her.

The second she saw his filthy face, she knew who he was and the anger and loathing ran thick in her blood.

She didn't even need to think before she attacked him, her leg automatically kicking out in the most vital disarming manoeuvre. He fell forward clutching his stomach in pain and she took her chance, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him down to the ground in one swift move.

He crashed to the ground with a thud, his limbs flailing wildly before he collapsed in exhaustion. She dragged her hand through her tangled grey hair and stared up at the sky before silently turning to retreat back to her house.

Before she could make it all of the way in, she felt a small hand grab her wrist and turned just in time to see a fist pound into her face.

It was at least a couple of hours before she woke up, _that must have been one good punch_, she thought as she rubbed the red lump that had arisen on her face. She bumped her elbow as she moved it back to her side and looked around to discover that she was stuck in a very cramped space and from the door pad that protruded directly in front of her she figured it was probably a storage room. Her own, to be exact she was sure it was the one at the back of the bedroom that had been cleared out just the week before and with limited space as it was, she was glad it had. She was about to stand up and leave when she heard deep voices flow in from under the door. The cold tone of it froze her in her tracks.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" one voice asked. His shadow was pacing across the light coming in through the crack of the door.

"Yes, I swear it was her, she grabbed me and the instinct just took over, I'm certain it was her." It was the voice of the wolfhouser who had put her here.

"Okay, well, I'll leave you to take care of the little girl and I'll be back to pick up granny in about an hour." She heard a door open and slam as he left the house.

She had to get out; she had to save her own life and that of her granddaughter. The wolfhouser probably didn't realise that she was awake and he wouldn't expect her to be for a while, so at least she had some time before he burst in to get her. She started with the obvious, the door pad, she knew the unlock key and she entered it into the glowing screen. To her surprise it just flashed, denying her access, they must have figured out how to change it. She now had no choice but to break down the door, but I faint knock stopped her.


	6. Chapter 6 Little Red

It had taken ages to get here and the hot sun had baked her neck a golden brown. As she stood before the door she contemplated just eating the food and going home, but she knew that she had come too far to go back and anyway, her granny made the best hot chocolate possible. She knocked hard on the door, ensuring she could be heard. Her grandmother was hard of hearing and hadn't gotten around to getting an electronic answering system yet. The door swung in and she heard a call from the bedroom.

"Oh, Red is that you?" her grandmother called sounding hoarse and croaky from her illness.

"Yes, Granny, can I come in?"

"Of course honey, you know the code."

Red did know the code; it was the last thing her mother always reminded her of as she left the door. She had never needed it before and her grandmother usually opened the door for her, sometimes before she even knocked. It was strange but Red knew that her grandmother was sick so that must be it.

Silently and carefully, she tapped in the ten digit code that opened the electronic lock on the door. Her thumb felt sweaty as she pressed it onto the biometric system and she wiped it on her cloak before entering the house.


End file.
